THE  ROBERT   E.  COWAN  COLLECTION 

L'RKSKXTKD    TO    THK 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 

BY 

C.  P.  HUNTINGTON 

JUNE,   1897. 

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Class  No.  y^f>^*- 

A*V  * 


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Brief  Qomparatiwe  I^euieu; 


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V.  O'BI^IHJSl 

Of  the  San  Francisco  I 


SIXTY 

DAYS  IN  EUROPE 

A  BRIEF  COMPARATIVE  REVIEW 


BY 

THOMAS  v.  O'BRIEN 

Of  the  San  Francisco  Bar 


SAN   FRANCISCO 

THE  BANCROFT  COMPANY 
1890 


AUTHOR'S     NOTE 

The  following  pages  were  written  on 
the  voyage  home  between  Boulogne 
and  New  York  for  the  purpose  of 
preserving  the  fruits  of  my  observations 
and  as  an  omnibus  letter  to  family 
and  friends. 

A  small  edition  was  printed  for 
private  distribution.  The  demand  for 
copies,  however,  exceeded  the  supply, 
hence  the  present  edition,  which  is 
printed  without  material  alteration. 


SIXTY  DAYS  IN  EUROPE 


A  BRIEF  COMPARATIVE   REVIEW 


From  Queenstowu  to  Berlin,  Naples 
to  Amsterdam,  sixty-seven  cities  and 
localities,  comprising  nearly  all  the 
principal  places  of  note  in  Europe;  not 
bad  in  fifty-seven  days  abroad. 

Like  a  continuous  drive  through  a 
beautiful  park,  with  all  the  cities  and 
objects  of  interest  brought  before  you 
to  be  seeu  with  no  greater  labor  than 
to  alight  from  your  car,  boat,  diligence 
or  carriage,  walk  up  a  steeple,  through 
a  gallery,  or  around  a  mountain  top, 

What !  see  nearly  the  whole  of  Europe 
with  its  principal  show  places  in  less 
than  sixty  days  ?  Nonsense  ! 


4  SIXTY    DAYS    IN  EUROPE 

But  listen  : 

All  Europe,  outside  of  Russia  is 
only  about  half  as  large  as  the  United 
States  without  Alaska. 

Sixteen  hundred  thousand  versus 
three  million  square  miles,  and  al- 
though it  has  not  as  many  miles  of 
railroad  as  the  United  States  by  one- 
seventh — 145,000  in  all  Europe,  as 
against  162,000  in  the  United  States — 
still,  spread  over  the  smaller  area  and 
going  at  a  fairly  good  speed,  there  is 
no  trouble  in  going  to  anywhere  from 
any  place  in  Europe  in  a  few  hours. 

London  to  Berlin,  not  so  far  as  from 
New  York  to  Chicago. 

to    Naples  but    little    farther. 


SIXTY   DAYS    IN   EUROPE  5 

II 

How  about  the  great  shows,  tbe 
beautiful  galleries,  the  historical  monu- 
ments, the  grand  scenery,  mountains, 
lakes  and  skies,  the  picturesque  old  towns, 
and  the  handsome  cities  and  the  people 
inhabiting  it  all? 

i.  Shows!  Well  the  Eiffel  Tower 
is  a  graceful  structure  and  veiy  high. 

It  reminded  me  of  Daniel  Webster's 
oration  before  a  certain  community  who 
were  the  happy  possessors  of  a  water- 
fall of  uncommon  height. 

"Friends  and  fellow- citizens,  great  is 
your  destiny.  Neither  Greece  in  all 
its  glory  nor  Rome  in  all  its  greatness 
ever  possessed  a  waterfall  200  feet  high." 

The  Parisians  go  the  ancients  several 
hundred  feet  better  than  this,  and 
afford  the  modern  visitor — who  fee's 


6  SIXTY    DAYS   IN  EUROPE 

inclined  to  stand  in  line  for  half  a 
day  for  his  turn  to  ascend  its  three 
successive  elevators — an  opportunity  to 
get  a  good  bird's-eye  view  of  their  city, 
which  is  a  very  pretty  sight  on  a 
fine  day. 

In  the  way  of  high  structures  thirteen- 
story  blocks  are  a  little  more  in  the 
American  line  just  yet. 

2.  The  Exposition!  Very  exten- 
sive, very  rich  and  very  artistically 
arranged;  on  familiar  lines,  however. 

With  the  aid  of  a  •  perambulating- 
chair  and  a  Parisian  with  his  blue 
blouse  a  la  Chinese,  a  wide-awake  am- 
ateur could  satisfy  his  curiosity  in 
regard  to  it  in  a  few  hours. 


SIXTY    DAYS   IN   EUROPE 


III 

i.  Art!  As  to  PICTURES  AND  STAT- 
UARY the  Americans  are  not  such  out- 
side barbarians  as  I  feared. 

The  National  Galleries  in  L,ondon, 
those  of  the  Louvre  in  Paris,  the  Uffizi 
and  Pitti  Palaces  in  Florence,  and  an 
odd  picture  and  statue  elsewhere  in 
Europe,  all  of  which  if  grouped  to- 
gether could  be  seen  in  an  amateurish 
way  in  a  Summer's  day,  will  give  you 
all  there  is  of  art  in  this  direction, 
and  give  you  a  notion  of  the  dis- 
tinctive features  of  the  "old  masters," 
some  of  them  very  fine  in  coloring 
and  expression,  smoothness  and  finish. 

In  the  matter  of  pictures  the  Ameri- 
cans appear  to  be  up  to  the  Euro- 
peans in  landscape  and  portrait 
painting,  and  a  good  second  in  marine 


8  SIXTY   DAYS   IN   EUROPE 

views;  but  historical  and  allegorical 
painting  does  not  seem  to  be  in  their 
line — they  probably  have  more  sense. 

The  tin  warriors,  stilted  old  dudes, 
tawdry  looking  females,  and  fat  angels 
flying  over  impossible  looking  martyrs 
that  furnish  the  staple  of  the  European 
article  does  not  seem  calculated  to 
inspire  a  sensible  man  to  any  great  effort 
in  that  direction. 

They  all  have  their  good  points, 
however,  these  master  works.  Like 
the  ancient  maiden  in  the  "Mikado" 
they  have  a  marvelous  collar-bone  or 
left  elbow  that  is  worthy  of  our  special 
admiration,  and,  like  her,  they  are 
certainly  ''sufficiently  decayed." 

There  is  just  one  gallery  in  Europe 
of  which  Americans  at  home  do  not 
have  and  can  have  no  adequate  con- 
ception, because  the  pictures  are  so 


SIXTY   DAYS   IN  EUROPE  9 

large  and  grand  that  it  is  an  affair  of 
years  and  of  rare  talent  to  copy  them, 
and  the  engravings  and  prints  \*e  see 
give  no  idea  of  their  power. 

That  is  the  Dore  Gallery,  the  work 
of  a  man  hardly  known  in  America  as 
a  painter,  containing  only  half  a  dozen 
principal  works,  but  those  calculated 
to  live  in  the  memory  of  man  when 
most  of  the  historical  and  allegorical 
pictures  in  Europe  have  faded  away 
and  been  forgotten . 

11  Christ  on  His  Way  to  Calvary."— 
Size,  height  of  picture  20  feet,  width 
30  feet. 

The  countless  multitude,  friends  and 
foes,  displaying  their  various  emotions, 
surrounding  yet  apart  from  Him  ;  He  the 
central  figure,  calm,  radiant  and  God- 
like wending  His  way  to  the  Cross. 


10  SIXTY   DAYS   IN  EUROPE 

Another,  in  size  14  x  21  feet, 
4 'Christ  in  the  Vale  of  Tears:" 

'  4  Come  unto  me  all  ye  that  are 
weary  and  heavy  laden  and  I  will 
give  you  rest." 

The  multitude  of  sinners — the  dying 
warrior,  the  stricken  tyrant,  the  peni- 
tent Magdalene,  the  broken  debauchee, 
the  mother  over  her  dying  babe — 
all  with  outstretched  arms  and  tearful 
eyes  beseeching  His  intercession  ;  He, 
shining,  radiant,  in  the  distance  point- 
ing the  way  to  Paradise — historical  and 
allegorical,  imagination,  realism  and 
power,  a  new  revelation  in  the  art 
of  painting — a  most  impressive  teacher 
in  the  sublime  lesson  of  Christianity. 

2.  Of  STATUARY  you  can  count  on 
your  fingers  the  specimens  that  have 
come  down  to  us  from  the  olden  time 
in  a  condition  to  be  admired. 


SIXTY   DAYS   IN   EUROPE  II 

Very  graceful  and  beautiful  they  are, 
and  with  the  museums  of  ancient  and 
medieval  relics,  indicative  of  the  high 
state  of  culture  prevailing  in  other 
times  and  places. 

A  single  room  in  the  Luxembourg 
Gallery  in  Paris  will  give  you  a  good 
idea  of  all  that  is  best  in  modern 
sculpture,  and  truly  admirable  it  is ; 
demonstrating,  I  think,  that  the  art 
in  modern  times  has  progressed,  at 
least  fully  up  to  the  ancient  standard. 

Several  galleries  in  America,  how- 
ever, furnish  copies  that  at  least  give 
a  fair  idea  of  it  all. 


12  SIXTY   DAYS    IN    EUROPE 

3.  Of  Music — A  second-rate  Ameri- 
can artist  was  the  prima  donna  of  Carl 
Rosa's  Opera  Company,  the  only  one 
in  lyondon  during  our  stay  ;  the  other 
artists  in  about  the  same  grade,  except 
one  very  clever  singing  comedian,  who 
was  received  with  but  scant  applause 
by  the  sober  Britons,  but  who  in 
America  would  be  thoroughly  enjoyed. 

An  excellent  representation  of  * '  Mign- 
on"  at  the  Grand  Opera  House  in  Berlin, 
with  good  stage  setting  and  large  num- 
ber of  auxiliaries,  but  not  so  satisfying 
or  equal  in  vocalization  to  the  Bostonians' 
presentation  of  the  same  opera  at  the 
California  Theater  a  little  while  ago. 
A  good,  though  rather  heavy,  represen- 
tation of  "Aida"  at  the  Grand  Opera 
House  in  Paris,  and  a  better  one  of  the 
"  Barber  of  Seville,"  at  the  Opera  House 
in  Brussels. 


SIXTY   DAYS   IN    EUROPE  13 

None  of  them  calculated  to  make  an 
American  feel  that  he  was  missing 
much  at  home. 

None  of  them  staged  as  well  as  in 
two  or  three  theatres  in  New  York, 
to  which  our  own  Baldwin  and  Cali- 
fornia are  a  very  good  second. 

No  institution  in  all  Europe  to 
compare  with  our  own  little  Tivoli 
for  a  good,  steady,  reliable,  cheap 
presentation  of  operatic  music. 

All  honor  to  the  quiet,  unpreten- 
tious gentlemen  who  have  made  it 
almost  indigenous  to  California  soil. 

A  splendid  combination  string  and 
brass  band  under  a  famous  leader,  one 
of  the  many  features  of  the  magnif- 
icent amusement  center  the  Crystal 
Palace  in  London. 

Not  however  equal,  fine  as  it  is, 
to  Gilmore's  Band  and  not  superior 


14  SIXTY   DAYS   IN   EUROPE 

in  melody  to  our  own  Golden  Gate 
Park  Baud,  which  latter  is  far  su- 
perior to  the  Hyde  Park  Band  or 
any  other  we  happened  to  hear  while 
abroad. 

Americans  regard  art  as  an  accomplish- 
ment rather  than  a  profession. 

The  ladies  are  encouraged  in  it  as  a 
recreation  ;  a  charming  way  possibly  of 
earning  a  little  pocket  money. 

If  our  sons  were  to  suggest  the  idea  ot 
adopting  it  as  a  vocation  they  would  be 
regarded  as  fit  subjects  for  a  lunatic 
asyluni. 

There  is  more  serious  and  important 
work  for  them  to  do. 

Should  the  time  unfortunately  arrive, 
by  the  change  of  conditions  and  the 
closing  of  other  avenues  of  effort,  when 
the  national  bent  would  encourage  tal- 
ented young  men  to  go  in  for  it  as  a 
profession  there  need  be  no  fear  ;  they 
will  soon  achieve  success  as  artists  equal- 
ing that  long  since  won  by  them  as  men 
of  affairs. 


SIXTY   DAYS   IN   EUROPE  15 

IV 

i.  As  to  ARCHITECTURE  AND  HIS- 
TORICAL MONUMENTS  : 

There  are  a  few  churches  and  pillars 
and  ancient  ruins  that  a  busy  Amer- 
ican can  profitably  spend  a  little 
time  to  look  at  and  ponder  over,  but 
not  so  many  as  the  enchantment  of 
distance  leads  absent  ones  to  imagine. 

An  American  unfamiliar  with  cathe- 
dral churches  who  first  sees  the  inte- 
rior of  Westminster  Abbey — grand,  yet 
simple  ;  in  the  form  of  the  sublime 
symbol  of  Christianity  a  cross  ;  capable 
of  comprehension  at  a  single  glance — 
I  think  receives  an  impression  that 
colors  his  subsequent  views  of  other 
churches. 

Aside  from  its  associations,  it  seems 
one  of  the  most  harmonious  and  one 


1 6  SIXTY    DAYS   IN   EUROPE 

of  the  finest  cathedral  churches  in 
Europe,  after  the  cathedral  in  Cologne, 
and,  of  course,  expecting  St.  Peter's  at 
Rome  and  St.  Paul's  at  London,  which 
are  of  an  entirely  different  and  more 
pretentious  style  of  architecture. 

The  cathedral  in  Cologne  is  equal  to 
it  internally,  and  much  superior  exter- 
nally with  its  tall,  graceful  spires  and 
pinnacles,  its  serried  embattlements  with 
their  many  graceful  figures. 

The  famous  cathedral  at  Strassburg 
was  intended  to  have  had  two  towers 
instead  of  one,  and  although  that  one 
is  a  beauty  and  one  of  the  sights  of 
Europe,  the  architectural  effect  of  the 
whole  is  incomplete,  a  defect  that  is 
not  compensated  by  the  church's  great 
astronomical  clock,  with  its  little  mov- 
ing figures,  a  very  interesting  subject 
for  clockmakers  and  children. 


SIXTY   DAYS   IN   EUROPE  1 7 

The  cathedral  at  Milan ;  within 
massive,  cold  and  plain,  is  a  magni- 
ficent affair  on  the  roof^  with  pinnacles 
and  towers  and  spires  and  statues 
countless  in  number  and  design,  and 
very  clever  in  execution,  costing  count- 
less millions  of  money  ;  but  you  have 
to  go  up  on  the  roof,  without  any 
elevator,  either,  to  admire  or  even  to 
see  it  all,  and  the  work  still  goes  on. 

The  practical  American  naturally 
asks  cut  bono? 

Why  spend  all  that  money,  the 
earnings  of  a  poor  people,  in  decora- 
ting a  roof,  where  not  one  in  a 
thousand  of  the  passers-by  or  in  the 
church  can  see  or  be  impressed  by 
it? 

Well,  well;  the  good  Father  above 
can  see  it,  and  all  the  other  costly 
churches  in  Europe  looming  up  out  of 


1 8  SIXTY    DAYS    IN    EUROPK 

the  gloom  and  misery  of  the  dark  ages 
in  His  honor,  and  the  amount  of  toil 
and  striving  and  human  effort  repre- 
sented in  their  cost  is  an  impressive 
monitor  that  His  children  have  not 
always  been  forgetful  of  Him,  but  have 
striven  as  best  they  could  to  cling  to 
the  rock  of  His  salvation. 

The  cathedral  of  Florence  is  a  won- 
derful structure,  black  and  white  and 
varicolored,  a  veritable  crazy  quilt  in 
marble. 

The  Catholic  cathedral  in  New  York 
is  quite  adequate  to  give  one  an  excel- 
lent idea  of  all  that  is  best  in  the 
architecture  of  cathedral  churches:  to 
look  at,  very  picturesque,  stately  and 
impressive ;  to  worship  in  medieval 
certainty,  quite  unnecessarily  cold,  cheer- 
less and  uncomfortable. 

None   of   these    compare    in    interior 


SIXTY   DAYS   IN   EUROPE)  1 9 

decoration  or  arrangement  to  St.  Peter's 
at  Rome,  a  structure  that  gives  you 
something  at  last  by  which  to  measure 
the  word  magnificent. 

With  cupolas  and  pillars  and  statues 
and  altars,  vast  and  innumerable,  blaz- 
ing in  gold  and  precious  stones, 
dwarfing  all  other  interiors  into  poverty 
and  insignificance. 

2.  Aside  from  the  churches  there 
does  not  appear  to  be  any  architecture 
in  Europe  of  any  particular  note. 

The  reason  probably  is  that  the 
efforts  of  genius  in  church  architecture 
were  encouraged  by  their  comparative 
immunity  from  spoliation  in  the  past, 
while  displays  of  wealth  in  other 
directions  merely  invited  attack,  and 
there  was  therefore,  no  inspiration  in 
that  direction. 

There  are,  therefore,  no  public  build- 


20  SIXTY   DAYS    IN   EUROPE 

ings  in  any  city  in  Europe  to  compare 
with  those  in  Washington. 

Our  own  New  City  Hall,  from  present 
appearances,  is  likely  to  be  in  the 
front,  if  not  rendered  too  squatty  by 
unwise  economy  in  its  completion. 

3.  As  to  the  alleged  palaces,  three  or 
four  of  our  Nob  Hill  residences,  and 
some  others  in  the  town  present  quite 
as  fine  an  appearance  architecturally  as 
any  to  be  seen  in  the  European  cities. 

Strange  to  say,  the  finest  private  resi- 
dence, by  all  odds,  that  we  saw  in  Europe, 
was  "Drurnoland  Castle,"  the  seat  of 
the  Earl  of  Inchiquin  in  County  Clare, 
Ireland. 

In  the  center  of  a  magnificent,  well- 
kept  park,  by  the  side  of  a  beautiful 
pleasure  lake,  with  its  towers  and  its 
battlements,  vast  and  grand,  its  cannon, 
and  its  banner,  with  its  barbarous  old 


SIXTY   DAYS   IN  EUROPE  21 

family  crest,  a  hand  and  dagger,  with 
the  motto,  "The  strong  hand  upper- 
most," flying  over  the  outer  wall,  to 
denote  that  the  owner  was  at  home,  all 
looking  as  though  it  had  come  down 
from  the  Middle  Ages,  yet  the  large 
windows  looking  out  on  the  beautiful 
scenery,  though  built  several  generations 
ago,  giving  it  an  appearance  of  modern 
elegance  and  comfort  that  fairly  took  my 
breath  away;  more  particularly  as  it  is  a 
family  tradition  that  Sir  L/ucius  O'Brien, 
the  father  of  the  present  Earl,  upon  the 
death  of  the  former  incumbent,  appropri- 
ated the  title  (but  not  this  estate,  which 
he  owned  before)  in  the  absence  in  Amer- 
ica of  the  rightful  heir  to  the  title,  to 
wit,  my  father.  Upon  seeing  the  style 
in  which  the  present  incumbent  sustained 
the  family  prestige,  I  took  off  my  hat  in 
humble  submission,  and  mentally  ejacu- 


22  SIXTY    DAYS   IN   EUROPE 

lated:  "  Go  it  old  man  !  You  are  a  sport ! 
Blaze  away  !  I  resign  all  claims,  which 
are  not  much,  however,  as  I  am  a 
younger  son.  A  mere  infant  in  fact.  I 
am  perfectly  willing  to  recognize  you  as 
the  head  of  the  Irish  branch  of  the  family, 
and  when  you  get  through  with  the  title 
am  willing,  as  was  Artemus  Ward  under 
similar  circumstances,  that  you  should 
give  it  to  the  poor,  together  with  your 
baronial  castle,  if  you  like.  I  would  not 
give  one  blessed  acre  of  California,  of 
which  I  own  a  few,  for  the  whole  of 
Europe,  if  I  had  to  live  in  it,  as  I  sup- 
pose I  would  have  to  if  I  owned  your 
title  and  estates — not  by  a  '  large  ma- 
jority.' " 

There  is  one  other  little  circumstance 
which  is  worth  relating  that  is  calculated 
to  give  this  gentleman  pause,  namely, 
that  three  or  four  generations  ago  one  of 


SIXTY   DAYS   IN   KUROPK  23 

his  ancestors,  at  a  quiet  little  game  of 
cards,  lost  a  little  matter  of  one  hundred 
thousand  pounds  to  another  courtly 
gentleman,  who  thereupon  magnani- 
mously told  him  that  for  himself  and 
his  heirs  he  would  waive  the  princi- 
pal so  long  as  two  thousand  pounds 
per  annum  was  regularly  paid,  and 
that  sum  thereupon  became  a  charge 
on  the  estate  that  has  to  be  regu- 
larly met  ever  since  the  result  of  a 
charming  evening's  entertainment. 

On  relating  this  incident  I  was 
told  on  excellent  authority  a  similar 
incident  spoken  of  as  a  well-known 
fact  about  which  there  was  no  occa- 
sion for  secrecy,  namely,  that  a  few 
years  ago  his  present  Royal  High- 
ness, the  Prince  of  Wales,  won  at 
cards  a  similar  sum  from  one  of  his 
chums,  taking  about  all  his  chum's 


24  SIXTY   DAYS    IN    EUROPE 

estates  and  knocking  him  out  of  the 
social  rounds.  A  rather  impressive 
suggestion,  I  should  think,  to  his 
other  chums  that  His  Royal  Highness 
played  cards  for  keeps,  and  that  they  had 
better  not  give  His  Royal  Highness 
any  points  in  deference  to  his  royalty. 

4.  Of  PERSONAL,  MONUMENTS  that 
erected  to  Sir  Walter  Scott  in  Edinburgh 
is  the  finest  we  have  seen — the  inspira- 
tion of  a  self-taught  Scotch  genius,  who 
unfortunately  was  drowned  in  a  Scotch 
canal.  Sir  Walter  is  represented  as 
seated  under  a  marble  canopy  supported 
by  columns,  with  a  graceful  spire  above, 
on  the  pinnacles  and  niches  of  which  are 
placed  statues  of  the  principal  characters 
in  his  works. 

From  base  to  summit  it  is  nearly  200 
feet  high,  but  is  so  graceful  and  well-pro- 
portioned that  it  seems  conparatively 


SIXTY   DAYS   IN  EUROPE  25 

small  and  can  be  appreciated  at  a  glance. 

It  needs  no  study  to  reveal  its  beauty 
and  its  appropriateness. 

There  is  nothing  like  it  in  Europe. 
The  architects  of  General  Grant's  tomb 
would  do  well  to  study  it. 

If  they  can  improve  upon  it,  as  is 
the  American  habit,  well  and  good. 
If  they  only  equal  it  our  great  soldier 
may  rest  content. 


26  SIXTY   DAYS   IN  EUROPE 

V 
RUINS 

Of  ANCIENT  RUINS,  the  excavations 
at  Pompeii,  the  Catacombs,  Palace  of  the 
Caesars,  the  Forum,  the  Colosseum  at 
Rome  and  the  castles  on  the  Rhine 
furnish  the  staple  of  the  European 
article. 

Very  interesting  and  romantic. 

As  to  the  aforesaid  excavations,  rather 
bawdy  in  places. 

As  to  the  others,  mainly  reminders  of 
what  human  tigers  and  unconscionable 
robbers  lived  in  those  days,  a  lesson 
that  I  think  we  have  learned  quite 
well  in  other  ways. 

The  world  is  certainly  a  little  better 
than  in  those  days. 

It  is,  at  all  events,  a  little  more 
refined  in  its  methods. 


SIXTY   DAYS   IN   EUROPE  27 

]>  was  reminded,  after  seeing  a  few  of 
those  remains,  of  Mark  Twain's  admo- 
nition in  his  " Innocents  Abroad"  to 
his  guide  on  showing  him  an  Egyptian 
mummy,  to  show  him  a  nice  fresh 
corpse. 

It  doesn't  take  long  to  size  up  all 
that. 


28  SIXTY   DAYS   IN 


VI. 

SCENERY. 
MOUNT  VESUVIUS. 

i.  Quite  an  imposing  affair,  and  now 
that  you  can  ride  to  within  150  feet 
of  the  crater  in  a  comfortable  car- 
riage and  modern  cable  railroad  car, 
fully  compensates  a  day's  travel,  pro- 
vided you  have  retained  your  self- 
respect  by  standing  off  in  good  American 
style  the  officious  volunteer  guides  who 
try  to  terrorize  you  into  the  belief  that 
you  cannot  walk  a  couple  of  hundred 
feet  up  and  around  a  mountain  top 
without  their  assistance;  by  giving  them 
the  few  dimes  they  were  so  eager  to 
make  a  pretense  of  earning,  but  dis- 
pensing with  their  assistance,  and 
thereby  gaming  their  respect  also. 


SIXTY  DAYS   IN   EUROPE  2  9 

The  volcano  itself  a  yawning  furnace, 
vomiting  forth  intermittently  with  start- 
ling uproar  great  clouds  of  vapor  and 
glowing  ashes. 

An  impressive  messenger  from  below, 
rather  more  so  than  our  own  boiling 
springs  in  L,ake  County  and  the  Gey- 
sers, but  not  so  interesting  as  a  whole; 
and  not  so  effective  at  all,  I  judge,  as 
the  wonders  of  Yellowstone  Park. 

THE   RHINE. 

2.  From  Mayence  to  Cologne,  prob- 
ably one  hundred  and  fifty  miles  or 
so,  almost  as  handsome  as  the  Hudson 
from  Albany  to  New  York —  and  that  is 
handsome  enough  for  any  river — with 
its  old  ruined  castles — (what  infernal 
old  scoundrels  their  owners  mostly  were, 
from  all  accounts,  to  be  sure) — and  its 
romantic  legends,  quite  an  interesting 
sail  on  a  Summer's  day. 


30  SIXTY   DAYS   IN  KUROPK 

The  Rhine  Falls,  about  a  day's  travel 
farther  up  the  river,  the  largest  but  not 
the  highest  in  Europe,  eighty  feet  or  so 
of  a  tumble,  at  an  angle  of  about 
forty -five  degrees,  a  tall  sentinel  rock 
in  the  center  to  which  one  may  be 
rowed  through  the  eddies. 

A  very  picturesque  place,  and  attract- 
ive hotel  center,  where  one  could  spend 
a  day  or  two  very  enjoy  ably. 

We  won't  refer  to  American  scen- 
ery in  that  respect.  It  would  not  be 
kind  to  the  Rhine  Falls. 

3.     As   to   the  beautiful   I,AKES: 

Killarney  we  saw  under  the  disadvan- 
tage of  a  wet  day  and  a  howling  mob  of 
stalwart  mendicants,  male  and  female, 
that  under  the  guise  of  pony- drivers 
and  goat's  milk  and  potheen  venders, 
and  echo  exploders  made  our  lives  a 
burden  through  the  Gap  of  Donloe, 


SIXTY   DAYS   IN   EUROPE  31 

and  all  of  whom  should  be  scourged 
out  of  the  country,  as  giving  tourists, 
and  therefore  spreading  abroad  the 
idea,  that  there  is  less  self-respect 
and  more  beggary  in  Ireland  than 
there  really  is. 

The  Swiss  and  Italian  lakes  we 
saw  after  having  seen  much  else — 
possibly  this  and  a  perfectly  delight- 
ful day  may  have  prejudiced  my 
views,  but  the  Scotch  lakes  L,omond 
and  Katrine,  with  their  surroundings, 
lying  on  the  Trosachs  route  between 
Glasgow  and  Edinburgh,  which  I 
had  hardly  heard  of  before — appear 
to  me  as  handsome  as  any  in  Europe. 

4.  As  to  MOUNTAINS,  the  Alps  are 
certainly  very  fine,  with  their  clear- 
cut  peaks  and  eternal ,  snows — in 
places — but  from  a  picturesque  point 
of  view  it  occurs  to  me  that  as  a 


32  SIXTY    DAYS    IN   EUROPE 

rule  they  are  quite  unnecessarily 
bare  and  bleak,  and  that  this  pro- 
ceeds quite  as  much  from  lack  of 
soil  and  consequent  vegetation  [as 
from  altitude. 

However,  I  did  not  make  the  Alps, 
and  I  am  not  responsible  for  them  or 
what  is  generally  written  about  them; 
and,  besides,  as  a  Californian,  I  am 
afraid  that  as  to  mountain  scenery  I  am 
a  little  bit  spoiled. 

5.  And  as  to  SKIES — Well,  suffice  it 
to    say,    that    beautiful    scenery,    lakes, 
mountains   and    skies    are   a   California 
production,    and   in  those,   as  in  every- 
thing else  she  produces,    she   beats  the 
world. 

6.  In  describing   the   SCENERY  one 
should  not  omit  to  mention   the   con- 
veniences  for     gentlemen   only,    to     be 
seen  quite     distinctly    on    every  street 


SIXTY   DAYS   IN   EUROPE  33 

corner,  in  Italy.  To  make  the  pic- 
ture complete,  however,  the  ladies 
should  have  been  provided  with  similar 
conveniences,  but  they  are  not  built 
that  wav. 


CHARACTERISTIC  SCENE. 

7.  A  magnificent  Neapolitan  drive, 
seven  or  eight  miles  along  the  bay, 
crowded  with  equipages  to  see  the 
King,  who  had  just  come  to  port, 
drive  by.  A  little  ragged  urchin 
conspicuous  on  a  roadside  elevation, 
sans-culoftes,  squatted  on  his  haunches, 
the  sunlight  streaming  between  his  fat 
extremities,  undisturbed,  munching  a 
crust  and  relieving  his  feelings,  crown- 
ing the  pinnacle  in  quite  a  startling 
way,  watching  for  the  King  to  go  by, 
which  he  presently  did  in  full  view. 


34  SIXTY    DAYS    IN    KUROPE 

A  fine  soldierly-looking  man  in  red, 
in  an  ordinary  town  carriage  like  our 
own — too  many  decorations  on  his 
breast  to  satisfy  my  ideas  of  repub- 
lican simplicity,  but  a  good  king  and 
a  good  man  striving  patriotically  and 
successfully  to  improve  the  condition 
of  his  people,  to  whom,  if  I  had 
recognized  him  in  time,  I  should 
therefore  have  been  glad  to  have 
raised  my  hat. 


SIXTY   DAYS   IN    EUROPE  35 


VII 

PICTURESQUE  OI,D  TOWNS,  if  they 
ever  existed,  are  pretty  nearly  extinct 
in  Europe. 

Speeding  along  on  the  railroad 
through  Italy,  you  could  see  suggestions 
of  the  article  from  your  car  window 
— quite  near  enough — in  the  towns  gath- 
ered around  the  mountain  tops  under 
the  aegis  of  some  mediaeval  castle  as 
a  protection  from  the  ' '  Guelphs  ' '  and 
the  "  Ghibelines, ' '  the  aforesaid  robbers 
and  human  tigers  of  the  feudal  ages. 

Little  toads,  winking  and  blinking  in 
the  noonday  sun,  hardly  daring  yet 
to  stick  their  heads  out  from  under 
its  protecting  shell  for  fear  of  the 
spoiler,  who,  let  us  hope,  has  passed 
away  forever. 


36  SIXTY   DAYS   IN   EUROPE 

VIII 

As  TO  THE  GREAT  CITIES  AND 
THE  PEOPLES. 

i.  The  manners  and  customs  of  the 
various  nations  appear  to  be  approxi- 
mating each  other  astonishingly,  as  well 
as  the  fashions,  which  appear  sub- 
stantially the  same  throughout  Europe. 

London  apparently  setting  the  fashion 
for  Paris,  and  Paris  for  the  Continent. 

The  hotels  up  to  a  quite  respectable 
and  astonishingly  uniform  standard  of 
excellence ;  none,  however,  to  compare,  in 
many  respects,  with  the  Coronado  Beach 
Hotel  at  San  Diego,  or  quite  equal  to  our 
own  Palace  Hotel  at  San  Francisco. 

English  spoken  in  them  all,  and 
but  little  trouble  to  get  along  without 
any  other  language. 

The   home   life   of  *the    people   barer 


SIXTY   DAYS   IN   EUROPE  37 

and  more  devoid  of  interest,  but  while 
working  as  continuously,  not  so  hard, 
and  taking  life  easier  in  this  regard 
because  the  prizes  for  labor  are  not 
so  glittering. 

More  and  cheaper  public  shows  also. 

Their  smaller  countries  more  minute- 
ly cultivated,  more  perfectly  trimmed  up 
and  completed;  a  charming  continental 
park,  full  of  pretty  landscape  views, 
without  money  and  without  price. 

Possibly  greater  community  and  con- 
tinuity of  social  life  also  (such  as  it  is), 
because  less  liable  to  change  of  station. 

Greater  refinement  also  among  the 
poorer  classes  than  their  appearance 
in  America  when  first  struggling  for 
a  start  or  learning  the  lesson  of 
American  progress  to  sacrifice  the 
present  a  little  for  the  future — would 
lead  one  to  expect. 


38  SIXTY   D^YS   IN   EUROPE 

2.  Continental  Europe  appears  mod- 
ern, democratic,  prosperous  and  content- 
ed. Books  of  a  generation,  twenty  or 
e\en  ten  years  ago  are  evidently 
wholly  inadequate  to  describe  its 
present  condition. 

Railroads  and  electricity,  the  union 
of  Germany  and  of  Italy,  have  evi- 
dently extinguished  many  warring 
antagonisms;  changed  the  face  of 
natuie,  lightened  the  load  of  poverty, 
and  l-.t  in  the  sunlight  of  education 
and  progress  to  illumine  the  dark 
places  and  brighten  the  lot  of  man. 

To-day  the  rulers  are  vying  with 
each  other  to  see  which  shall  do 
most  to  conciliate  their  people  and 
make  them  happy  and  contented 
with  their  rule. 

The  evidences  of  this  are  seen  on 
every  hand,  in  almost  every  continental 


SIXTY    DAYS    IN  EUROPE  39 

city,  in  the  improvements  initiated  or 
facilitated  by  the  respective  govern- 
ments. 

Notably  in  Germany  and  Italy,  which 
have  evidently  awakened  to  a  new  life. 

Half  of  Rome  and  Naples  have  evi- 
dently been  built  in  very  handsome 
modern  style,  it  would  seem,  within 
ten  years  or  so,  and  the  work  still 
rushes  on. 

While  Paris,  since  the  war  with  Ger- 
many, has  been  practically  at  a  stand- 
still, Berlin  has  doubled  in  population, 
and  now,  with  a  population  of  1,438,000 
people,  has  claims  to  be  considered  the 
handsomest,  as  it  is  the  most  modern, 
capital  city  in  Europe,  with  the  finest 
looking  and  best  dressed  people. 

Their  clothing  for  men  and  women, 
to  be  had  in  every  shop  at  less 
prices  and  of  infinitely  better  style  and 


40  SIXTY   DAYS    IN    EUROPE 

finish  than  any  we  were  able  to  see 
in  Paris,  and  fully  equal  to  any  we 
saw  in  London. 

The  Germans  are  the  one  race  in  Eu- 
rope that  far  surpassed  my  expectations. 

Large  standing  armies,  at  least  as 
to  Germany  and  Italy,  are  by  no 
means  an  unmixed  evil. 

They  are  welding  their  people  to- 
gether, weaning  them  away  from  old 
sectional  jealousies,  petty  strifes  and 
superstitions. 

The  army  is  a  school  from  which 
their  people  graduate  manlier,  more 
intelligent  and  more  patriotic  citizens; 
and  if  a  war  comes  it  is  as  but  a 
few  Seattle  fires,  a  few  Johnstown 
floods,  the  evidences  of  which  are 
soon  obliterated. 

If  the  blood  and  iron  spent  result 
in  thra.^hing  out  a  new  principle  for 


SIXTY   DAYS   IN   EUROPK  41 

the  advancement  of  the  human  race, 
or  in  bringing  it  a  step  nearer  on  the 
road  to  the  final  peaceful  federation  of 
the  world,  who  can  say  that  it  has 
not  been  well  expended. 

War  now   is   not  as   in   the  past. 

It  has  been  shorn  of  many  of  its 
terrors. 

The  time  has  already  almost  come  pro- 
phesied by  Bulwer  L,ytton  in  his  "  Com- 
ing Race,"  where  every  man  had  his 
weapon  loaded  with  the  mighty  '  *  Vrill ' ' 
with  which  he  could  destroy  an  army. 

So  war  was  at  an  end,  because  it 
meant  mutual  annihilation. 

It  means   nearly    that   now. 

It  is  but  an  affair  of  a  ft  w  weeks,  or 
months  at  most,  in  the  mean  time  but 
little  disturbing  the  industries  or  home 
life  of  the  people,  instead  of  as  in 
the  past  spreading  ruin  and  desolation 
every  where. 


42  SIXTY   DAYS   IN   EUROPE 

3.  Great  Britain  and  Ireland" s  isola- 
tion from  continental  wars,  together  with 
the  safety-valve  of  emigration  for  her 
energetic  and  ambitious  people,  has 
preserved  an  institution  that  in  Con- 
tinental Europe  has  long  since  been 
ground  to  powder  between  the  upper 
and  nether  millstones,  the  rulers  and 
the  people,  namely  the  Aristocracy, 
which  by  ruling  society  practically  still 
rules  Britain,  and  renders  her,  not- 
withstanding the  reflex  influence  upon 
her  institutions  of  her  emancipated 
children  abroad,  one  of  the  most  con- 
servative of  representative  governments 
in  Europe  to-day. 

Happy   fortune   that   it   is   so. 

If  their  lines  were  cast  in  more  pleas- 
ant places  at  home  her  people  that  have 
created  abroad  and  peopled  another 
world  of  thought,  feeling  and  action, 


SIXTY   DAYS   IN   EUROPE  43 

that  is  raising  the  human  race  to  higher 
planes  of  effort  and  of  happiness,  might 
be  frittering  their  energies  away  like 
the  Swiss  Mountaineers  carrying  bas- 
kets of  earth  to  cover  the  nakedness 
of  the  Scotch  Highlands,  or  like  the 
L,owlanders  of  Holland  digging  dikes 
to  rescue  a  few  more  scanty  acres  of 
Irelan  1  from  the  elements. 

Those  little  islands  have  done  better 
work  than  raising  corn  and  potatoes. 

They  have  been  the  nursery  of  a 
new  world. 

They  have  raised  men  and  women 
that,  leaving  behind  the  Old  World, 
not  yet  quite  emerged  from  semi- 
barbari  m,  with  its  little  kings  and 
queens  and  emperors  with  their  little 
tinsel  crowns  and  tawdry  robes,  their 
little  soldiers  with  their  little  guns, 
their  little  aristocratic  loafers  with  their 


44  SIXTY   DAYS   IN   EUROPE 

little  selfish  ways,  have  founded  a 
new  world. 

Following  the  instinct  prescribed  from 
on  high  that  causes  the  polyp  in  ocean's 
depths  to  reach  out  its  feelers  for  food, 
the  beaver  to  build  its  dam,  the  bee 
to  make  its  honey,  and  civilized  man 
to  work  to  decorate  his  bride  and  im- 
prove the  lot  ot  his  children — have 
there  crowned  labor  king. 

Under  the  benign  rule  of  that  mon- 
arch, at  last  come  to  his  rightful  in- 
heritance and  ruling  in  truth  by  right 
divine,  they  are  dominating  the  world. 

More  than  four -fifths  of  the  white 
population  of  the  United  States  to-day 
have  sprung  from  the  two  little  islands 
in  the  sea. 

As  to  what  they  have  to  show  for 
themselves  in  their  new  home  consult 
Carnegie's  "Triumphant  Democracy." 


SIXTY   DAYS   IN   EUROPE  45 

4.  It  has  been  shown  that  the  United 
States  represents  six-tenths  of  the 
English-speaking  people,  which  alto- 
gether constitute  nearly  one-third  of  all 
the  civilized  people  on  the  globe  to-day. 

That  it  owns  a  country,  without  Alas- 
ka, containing  twice  as  great  an  area  as 
all  Europe  without  Russia,  with  one- 
seventh  more  miles  of  railway  than 
combined  Europe. 

That  it  is  the  wealthiest  nation  in 
the  world  by  six  billion  dollars. 

The  greatest  agricultural  and  pastoral 
nation,  producing  one-third  of  the  world's 
grain,  cotton  and  wool. 

The  greatest  manufacturing  cation  in 
the  world,  producing  nearly  half  as 
much  as  all  Europe. 

That  it  produces  half  of  the  gold, 
one-third  of  the  silver,  one-fourth  of 
the  copper  and  lead,  one-third  of  the 


46  SIXTY    DAYS    IN   EUROPE 

coal  and  iron,  o\vns  three-fourths  of 
all  the  coal  lands,  all  the  natural 
gas,  and  most  of  the  petroleum  in 
the  world,  with  half  as  much  ship- 
ping as  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  and 
as  much  as  the  five  nations  next  in 
order  combined. 

Truly  the  little  powers  of  Europe 
shrivel  up  in  comparison. 

5.  Our  own  great  STATE  OF  CALI- 
FORNIA, with  its  156,000  square  miles 
of  territory,  only  50,000  behind  the 
208,000  of  imperial  Germany. 

In  size  the  second  state  in  the 
Great  Republic.  The  greatest  in  per 
capita  wealth  and  among  the  least  in 
debt. 

The  greatest  wheat-growing  State 
in  the  Union ;  producing  nearly  one- 
eleventh  of  the  whole  crop  of  the 
United  States. 


SIXTY   DAYS   IN   EUROPE  47 

The   greatest   in   mining  resources. 

The  finest  climate  in  the  world 
therefore  the  most  diversified  and  the 
richest  per  capita  in  its  agricultural 
productions. 

With  manufacturing  products  valued 
at  one  hundred  and  seventy  million 
dollars  per  annum  and  in  commerce 
its  principal  city  ranking  among  the 
great  cities  of  the  Union ;  third  in 
value  of  imports  and  sixth  in  value 
of  exports. 

With  a  clean  page  upon  which  to 
write  its  future  history  and  such  a 
people  to  make  and  write  it,  it  is 
a  home  fit  for  the  sovereigns  that  its 
people  are. 

6.  San  Francisco,  too,  with  her  grand 
old  Pacific  Ocean  ready  to  bear  the 
world's  commerce  to  her  shores. 

Her  magnificent  bay  and  harbor,  un- 


48  SIXTY   DAYS    IN   EUROPE 

excelled — yes,   unequaled   in  the  world  ! 

Her  grand  water-ways,  bearing  the 
products  of  an  Empire  State  to  her 
wharves. 

Her  hills  and  vales  admitting  of  views 
of  urban  scenery  unsurpassed  in  the 
world;  with  her  elegant  cable-car  sys- 
tem, the  creation  of  her  own  genius, 
unequaled  anywhere,  enabling  her 
people  to  get  the  full  benefit  of  their 
scenic  advantages. 

Her  surrounding  and  ever-improving 
pleasure  resorts,  with  natural  advan- 
tages inferior  to  none. 

Her  handsome  and  extensive  parks, 
national  and  municipal,  fully  equal  to 
the  best;  her  fruits  and  flowers  un- 
equaled in  the  world — not  even  a  good 
second  anywhere  in  sight. 

Her  beautiful  women  and  children, 
nothing  like  them  this  side  of  Paradise. 


SIXTY    DAYS    IN    KUROPK  49 

Her  bounteous  sunshine  to  inspire  her 
people  to  effort ;  her  balmy  winds  and 
cot  so  inspiring  fogs  to  check  their 
ardor  and  remind  them  of  their  mortal- 
ity. 

One  of  the  world's  great  commercial 
centers  if  only  her  children  would 
strive  for  their  heritage. 

One  of  the  world's  great  pleasure 
cities,  also  if  they  would  only  put  their 
house  in  order  to  receive  their  guests. 

A  home  for  the  gods,  it  being  al- 
ways understood  that  the  gods  don't 
wear  any  clothes  to  be  torn  or  soiled 
in  our  wretched  streets. 

I  am  bound  to  confess  that  San  Fran- 
cisco, in  respect  to  its  streets  is  alto- 
gether the  worst  I  have  seen,  and  I 
have  now  seen  nearly  all  the  principal 
cities  in  Europe  and  America. 

Nothing  like  it  in  the  civilized  wrorld. 


50  SIXTY   DAYS    IN   EURO?E 

When  we  landed  in  Ireland  I  expected 
something  similar  in  this  respect,  but 
Queenstown,  Cork,  Limeric,  Dublin, 
Belfast,  all  handsome,  smooth  and  clean, 
not  only  in  the  cities  but  the  country 
roads,  making  driving  a  positive  pleas- 
ure and  giving  an  appearance  of  thrift, 
neatness  and  refinement  everywhere  that 
I  was  glad  to  see  in  Ireland. 

Glasglow — another  Chicago — no  use 
of  looking  there  for  evidences  of  semi- 
barbarism. 

Edinburgh  with  her  hills  and  vales, 
old  town  and  new,  all  smooth  and 
clean  as  a  pin. 

London,  with  much  costly  wooden 
pavement,  laid  with  tireless  care,  over 
which  the  immense  traffic  rolled  without 
a  jar.  Boys  running  under  the  horses 
heels  with  basket  and  pan  to  pick  up 
the  droppings.  Whitechapel — splendid 


UNIVERSITY 


SIXTY   DAYS   IN   EUROPE  51 

wide  thoroughfare  crossed  by  narrower 
streets  and  little  alleys  (  through  which 
we  roamed  on  Sunday  morning  to  see 
the  Jews'  rag  fair  cf  old  clothes 
patronized  by  the  poorer  working  peo- 
ple), all  smooth,  and  strong  and  clean, 
no  suggestion  of  the  murdering  fiend 
who  has  terrorized  half  the  poor  unfor- 
tunates of  London. 

Paris  with  its  magnificent  boulevards 
and  handsome  streets,  where  the  care- 
less dropping  of  a  piece  of  paper  is 
a  public  offense.  No  parallel  there. 

Well,   then,  in  Italy. 

Turin,  neat,  handsome  and  wide  thor- 
oughfares, paved  with  stone.  Smooth 
wide  flags  laid  like  rails  on  each  side 
of  the  street,  over  which  the  carriages 
roll  smoothly  and  with  little  noise. 
Its  boulevards  on  the  banks  of  the 
Po  a  delightful  driveway. 


52  SIXTY    DAYS   IN   EUROPE 

Genoa — in  the  old  town,  streets,  nar- 
row but  smooth  and  solid  ;  the  newer 
portion  on  higher  ground  overlooking 
the  bay  and  surrounding  cit}^  and 
country,  wide,  handsome,  commanding 
and  clean. 

Well,  then,  old  Rome.  No  not  old 
Rome,  which  is  renewing  its  youth 
and  blossoming  out  again  like  a  green 
bay  tree. 

The  Corso,  still  its  principal  street, 
only  fifty  feet  wide,  but  smooth, 
solid  and  clean.  Its  new  avenues 
stretching  out  in  the  suburbs  hand- 
some and  wide.  No  San  Francisco 
there. 

Well,  then,  Naples  with  its  lazza- 
ron  and  its  plague  only  a  year  or 
two  old. 

No,  not  Naples — streets  wide,  smooth 
and  handsome.  In  the  poorer  quar- 


SIXTY   DAYS    IN    EUROPE  53 

ters  a  little  unswept,  but  as  a  rule 
clean  and  always  solid  and  smooth. 
Its  driveway  around  the  bay  front, 
three  or  four  miles  long,  banked  up 
with  solid  masonry,  recently  inaugu- 
rated and  completed,  a  thing  of 
beauty  and  joy  forever. 

Florence — streets,  driveways  and 
boulevards  there  that  justly  entitle  it 
to  its  title  ''Beautiful  Florence." 

Venice  has  but  little  use  for  streets, 
but  those  she  has,  though  narrow, 
are  solid  and  clean  enough. 

Milan — handsome  modern  city,  streets 
wide  and  clean  and  new,  and  where 
not  so  wide  and  handsome,  fast 
being  made  so  by  opening  new  boule- 
vards at  great  expense. 

Nothing  in  Italy  to  compare  our 
streets  with. 

Switzerland,  then. 


54  SIXTY   DAYS   IN   EUROPK 

Geneva,  Lausanne,  Lucerne,  Zurich, 
Constance,  not  by  a  large  majority, 
clean  and  well  kept  the  order  of  the 
day. 

Not  a  mountain  road  in  sight  any- 
where that  would  not  be  ashamed  to 
own  such  dirt  and  shiftlessness. 

Basel,  then.  The  corner  of  three 
nations — France,  Switzerland  and  Ger- 
many. Handsome,  well-built  streets, 
wide  and  clean,  verdure  everywhere. 
Such  a  thing  not  to  be  suggested. 

Germany,    then. 

Mayence,  Strasburg  and  Cologne,  a 
little  gloomy  under  their  recent  change 
of  masters,  cannon  rumbling,  soldiers 
marching,  and  officers  being  serenaded 
with  great  parade  in  their  hotels,  but 
have  not  lost  their  hearts  or  heads  suf- 
ficiently to  let  their  streets  go  to 


SIXTY   DAYS    IN    EUROPE  55 

wreck  or  blow  dust  in  their  faces  and 
over  their  houses  and  gardens. 

Berlin.  The  most  modern  and  one 
of  the  most  attractive  cities  in 
Europe,  with  handsome  streets,  smooth 
and  clean,  a  luxury  to  drive  over 
them  through  the  endless  rows  of 
handsome  modern  buildings,  but  little 
of  militarism  to  be  seen,  and  the 
old  Emperor  William's  palace  open  to 
the  public  in  the  most  democratic 
way. 

Not  in  Hamburg,  one  of  the  hand- 
somest as  well  as  most  enterprising 
cities  in  Europe.  An  elegant  drive- 
way eight  or  nine  miles  along,  the 
Alster  lakes  within  the  city  lined 
with  handsome  houses  and  elegant 
dwellings — an  exposition  in  progress, 
manifold  in  its  exhibits,  in  elegant 
buildings,  in  a  handsome  park  that 


56  SIXTY    DAYS   IN    EUROPE 

would  be  a  credit  to  any  city  ;  half 
a  dozen  bands  playing  in  different 
directions  therein,  a  captive  balloon 
ascension  that  in  ten  minutes  gives 
me  as  good  a  view  of  the  handsome 
city  embowered  in  trees  and  parks  as 
I  got  of  Paris  in  the  Eiffel  Tower 
after  half  a  day's  waiting. 

A  recent  expendituie  of  the  city  of 
one  hundred  million  marks  (twenty-five 
million  dollars),  to  the  Empire's 
appropriation  of  about  half  as  much 
more  to  inaugurate  and  carry  to  suc- 
cessful completion  the  actual  excava- 
tion of  a  harbor  I  should  say  several 
hundred  acres  in  extent  for  ships 
drawing  twenty-seven  feet  of  water, 
indicates  that  they  would  hardly  be 
the  kind  of  people  to  let  their  streets 
wrear  out  or  dry  up  and  blow  away 
or  remain  paved  with  crooked  stones 


SIXTY   DAYS    IN   EUROPE  57 

over  which  a  horse  can  hardly  walk 
without  danger  of  stumbling,  or  a 
woman  without  spraining  her  ankle, 
or  a  carriage  roll  without  danger  of 
a  collapse  and  raising  a  din  sufficient 
to  wake  the  dead. 

The  thrifty  and  patient  Hollanders, 
too,  who  have  stemmed  and  turned 
aside  the  ocean,  and  built  their 
northern  Venice — Amsterdam — upon 
piles,  and  have  to  exercise  unceasing 
work  to  keep  it  and  their  lands 
above  the  waves,  would  not  be 
likely  to  let  their  streets,  wrhich  they 
have  builded  and  paved  with  so  much 
care,  go  to  wreck. 

In     Amsterdam,     streets     wide     and 

solid  and   handsome,  running  along  the 

sides   of  and  over  the  handsome  bridges 

that     crossco  their    numberless     canals, 

k*-.    v.         ,    mfortable  houses. 


58  SIXTY   DAYS   IN   EUROPE 

A  city,  I  dare  to  say,  quite  as  pic- 
turesque and  far  more  useful  than  the 
Venice  of  the  south,  with  its  Italian 
skies  and  historic  romances. 

The  Hague  and  Rotterdam  also 
sustain  Holland's  reputation  for  solid- 
ity and  cleanliness. 

Belgium.  In  its  two  principal 
cities  furnishes  no  parallel. 

Antwerp,  clean,  solid,  strong,  and 
altogether  respectable. 

Brussels,  this  and  much  more — 
another  Paris  or  rather  Berlin. 

Not  in  Lille,  a  great  French  man- 
ufacturing city  with  wide  handsome 
streets  and  neat  rows  of  comfortable 
houses,  not  so  bustling  as  an  Ameri- 
can city,  but  neat,  solid  and  clean. 
Boulogne,  solid  and  clean  if  not  so 

wide;  fine   stone   docks  anc1    Costly  arti- 

-  .  V  «     t.  ooked   st"uco 

ncial   harbor. 


SIXTY    DAYS    IN  EUROPE  59 

There  we  are  driven  into  the  sea 
again  without  finding  in  civilized 
Europe  a  parallel  to  our  thriftlessness. 

Not  there  then,  and  not  in 
America ;  certainly  not  in  these  cities 
with  which  San  Francisco  will  consent 
to  compare  itself  can  their  like  be 
found. 

No  wonder  San  Francisco  hackmen 
charge  four  times  European  prices,  $1.50 
as  against  30  and  40  cents  per  hour, 
and  are  suspected  of  forming  a  com- 
bination to  influence  our  police  courts 
in  their  favor.  They  ought  to  charge 
fourteen  dollars  an  hour  and  threaten 
to  garrote  every  man,  woman  and  child 
in  it  so  as  to  render  it  a  desolate  waste, 
unless  they  were  released  from  the 
torture  of  driving  over  its  streets  in  their 
present  condition. 

More    than   once,    when     dilating   on 


60  SIXTY    DAYS   IN    EUROPE 

the  beauties  of  San  Francisco,  when 
launching  into  praise  of  her  manifold 
advantages,  has  some  listener  inter- 
rupted : 

Is  it  not  very  dusty  there  ?  Are 
your  streets  in  good  condition  ?  Is 
there  not  some  trouble  about  your 
sewers  ? 

From  your  mountain  streams  and 
surrounding  sta  you  ought  to  have 
an  ample  supply  of  water,  not  only 
for  household  purposes,  but  for  sprink- 
ling your  streets  and  beautifying  your 
cit}'.  Have  you  this  ? 

With  your  magnificent  bay  you 
ought  to  have  fine  accommodations 
for  all  your  shipping  and  lumber 
interests.  Have  )*ou  that? 

With  your  equable  climate  it  ought 
to  cost  but  little  to  build  and  keep 
in  repair  your  surrounding  driveways, 


SIXTY   DAYS   IN    EUROPE  6 1 

and  make  the  suburbs  of  your  city 
attractive.  I  presume  you  are  making 
great  progress  in  this  direction? 

I  suppose  your  people  must  be 
taking  great  interest  in  the  Isthmus 
canals,  the  completion  of  which 
would  bring  the  world's  commerce  to 
your  wharves  ? 

Your  people  could  easily  build  it 
themselves  with  greater  ease  than  old 
Hamburg  dug  her  twenty-seven-foot 
harbor  out  of  the  solid  earth  at  an 
expense  to  her  of  one  hundred  mill- 
ions. 

I  suppose  your  people  are  making 
great  efforts  to  secure  competing  lines 
of  railroad  to  overcome  your  compar- 
ative isolation  and  develop  the  re- 
sources of  your  great  State,  which 
should  support  a  dozen  such. 

The   great   fortune    I    am    told    a  few 


62  SIXTY   DAYS   IN   EUROPE 

of  your  citizens  made  in  that  way 
should  inspire  others  in  the  same 
direction. 

I  am  told  you  have  fine  deposits 
of  petroleum  within  your  State,  and 
vast  fields  of  coal  and  iron  at  Puget 
Sound  within  easy  and  cheap  ship- 
ping distance. 

I  suppose  your  citizens  are  making 
great  efforts  to  make  these  deposits 
available,  like  Chicago  piping  natural 
gas  100  miles? 

Your  manufactures  ought  to  thrive 
apace. 

Holy   smoke  !     Please   don't. 

Down  goes  San  Francisco's  plumage, 
bedraggled  in  the  dust. 

Where  is  our  boasted  energy  as  com- 
pared with  other  communities  ? 

Are  we  not  rather  approximating  the 
native  California!!,  lolling  lazily  in  the 


SIXTY   DAYS   IN  EUROPE  63 

noonday  sun,  content  with  the  bless- 
ings God  has  showered  on  us  with 
such  lavish  hand. 

Folding  his  talents  in  a  napkin  instead 
of  putting  them  at  interest  to  be 
returned  many  fold. 

Well,  San  Francisco  is  yet  in  her 
teens.  When  full  maturity  has  develop- 
ed her  charms  she  should  be  a  beauty 
and  a  joy  forever. 

Let  us  all  hasten  that  happy  con- 
summation.  . 


